Oliver, alone.

So I was now officially out of school, and it felt weird. It wasn’t even 1:00 pm and I was back in my house with nothing to do until later in the day. I drove the girls back to their houses and they all had their own things to do and people to meet. One last meeting with people they’d probably not see often again, if ever.

Like I said, the people I wanted to keep in contact with weren’t going far, or anywhere, really. I was one of the few lucky ones in that sense. Isabelle was out as well, hanging out with a big group from her class and mom had gone back to work, having only asked for permission to leave for our graduation ceremony.

It was only Cake and I in the house as I lay on my bed and Cake lay on top of me, and I felt seriously weird. No homework to do, no test to study for, no school event on the horizon… People I’d only just started to know I’d no longer see again. That last part was surprisingly painful now all of a sudden.

I suppose that for all my talk of not caring about graduating, leaving school still left a small hole. Years of routine suddenly gone, and I wouldn’t know what was truly coming my way until after summer vacation.

“The only thing that’s staying the same is that I’m still working at the coffee shop,” I told Cake as I scratched behind her ear. “And even then I’ll be taking new shifts for a while. And soon enough I may have to quit to work at Luke’s hotel.”

I had a shift that day at 6:00 pm. Maria asked me to go to help the new girl, Mr. Carlos’ daughter, and I have to admit I was more than a little nervous about it.

There was something about her that it was hard to explain. We hadn’t spoken much, and being honest I had way too much on my plate to think about her all the time. But now that I had to work with her… I found myself feeling somewhat excited, and it worried me.

I… liked her, superficially speaking. She was attractive, had a gorgeous figure, a beautiful face and an exotic air about her. Certainly my type, no doubt about that. Despite that, I had no intention of… pursuing something with her. Too many reasons not to. She was the daughter of a man I knew, my relationship with Diana was still fairly new and she was only just settling in with us, I was already satisfied with the relationships I had and, most importantly, I barely even knew her. And yet… when I saw her… I don’t know if it was simple lust or something deeper, but I felt something from her that was similar to what I felt from Diana when I first met her. A vague impression that… that she and I would be good together.

We had talked about that with the girls before. I had told them about this and we theorized that maybe it was part of my powers, a hidden trait that had yet to fully develop in the way my mind-reading had.

…

That was another thing, too. Developing my own powers. I remember I used to be scared of them at first. Scared of having them, but also scared of losing them. They were the reason I was receiving attention from the girls I liked, and that was both fortunate and painful. I liked it, but knew that these powers were the only reason I was even in their radar.

I try not to think about it too much now, but even if I know the girls don’t only like me for the sex, it’s impossible to deny that magic is a pillar of our relationship. Who knows if I’ll have them forever. Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. But the fact was that I needed them to support my relationship with the girls.

I think I remember telling Mila once that I saw worth in honing a skill, any skill. This was back when she was wondering what to do for her future. So… If I follow my own advice, there should be worth in honing my ability to use magic. At this point it was a part of me, not just something borrowed. It seemed like the responsible thing to do.

What will I be able to do? Where can we take these abilities? In what direction? I admit I found myself excited thinking of these questions.

Cake was licking the back of her paws as I wondered about all this stuff, and it ended up giving me a stupid idea. “Do you think we could make you talk if we used magic?” Cake meowed, and I decided to believe it was only in response to me talking and not an actual answer. “Forget it. Terrible idea. We’d never shut you up.”

How much time went by while I was thinking all this? An hour? Two? Nope. Only 15 minutes.

“...I’m bored,” I muttered to myself.

When was the last time I had a moment like this? Nothing to, and nothing I wanted to do, either. I considered sitting up and playing a game, but wasn’t really feeling it. I could play the guitar or practice more with the bass, but I wasn’t in the mood for it, either.

…

But I had nothing else to do, and sometimes you have to **** yourself to do things even when you’re not in the mood. If I wanted to one day make music my job, I’d have to get used to it.

…

My job? Hmm.

Instead of grabbing my guitar, the bass or even the ocarina, I grabbed my phone and began to search. I was getting better at improvising and even had a few original pieces that had come from that, but I still knew very little about theory. I knew Hyogen University didn’t have the best music courses, so why not start some independent studies ahead of time? With the power of the internet, there were many places to learn from.

Ended up spending the whole afternoon doing that. Felt productive.

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